This invention relates to impulse or drop-on-demand ink jet printers. This invention also relates to printers which are capable of printing bar codes.
Co-pending application Ser. No. 801,926, filed Nov. 26, 1985, which is assigned to the assignee of this invention describes an impulse or drop-on-demand ink jet comprising an ink chamber having a plurality of ejection orifices where droplets are simultaneously ejected from each of said plurality of orifices by energizing a single transducer associated with the chamber. As disclosed in the aforesaid application, a plurality of such ink jets may be utilized for printing predetermined patterns, including bar codes, while minimizing the number of channels required. In other words, the number of chambers and transducers and associated circuitry and fluidic passageways may be minimized for the above-described arrangement.
The 965 printer which has been marketed by Exxon Office Systems, an affiliate of the assignee of the subject application, employs a plurality of chambers with a single orifice for each chamber and a single transducer for ejected a droplet from the single orifice of each chamber. In that printer, the orifices are slanted or inclined with respect to the scanning direction so as to provide a desired field height while, at the same time, maintaining a desired resolution. Details of the 965 printer are disclosed in application Ser. No. 467,040, filed Feb. 16, 1983, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,570, which is assigned to the assignee of this invention.